Irish Examiner view: Cork takes steps to make the city feel safer
Shoplifting and other crimes are falling in Cork City — although that may not be immediately apparent to people reading last week's news of two stabbings in the city. File picture: Dan Linehan
It should go without saying that everybody who visits one of our cities should feel safe, and yet, many things are happening which cast that in doubt.
So it was that city and business leaders in Cork met last week to discuss ways of making the city safer.
This, it should be emphasised, does not mean that Cork City is a lawless place like the one Donald Trump imagines American cities to be.
As Emer Walsh notes in today’s edition, while the Anglesea Street division, which includes the city centre, recorded a crime rate 800% higher than the national average, it’s the country’s second largest city and the national average takes into account divisions that have very little reported crime.
An 'Irish Examiner' special report in recent months looking at court cases showed that a high number of offences were things like theft, with addiction a significant factor in offending.
Still, anything that helps reduce crime and eases the fear of crime is a welcome thing.
And, as it is, shoplifting and other crimes are actually falling, though that might not be immediately apparent to the regular citizen who sees news of two stabbings in a week.
While such incidents are, thankfully, relatively rare in the city, they do reinforce the need for a proper strategy to enhance general safety on the streets.
And, as reported last week by Liz Dunphy, the city is to see the arrival of four new wardens. While not enforcers like gardaí, they are nonetheless important eyes and ears, as well as a visible presence to show potential offenders — and just as importantly, those just going about their business living and working in the city — that somebody is watching.
They are due to be on the streets from November, and so well bedded in before the busy Christmas period when footfall is traditionally at its highest.
Ultimately, while it’s important for crimes to be policed and prosecuted adequately — and the lack of space in our prisons is another issue entirely — it’s just as important to try to deal with some of the source issues. Wealth inequity, desperation from the cost-of-living crisis, substance abuse, homelessness; these things motivate so-called petty crimes in numbers, and actually addressing some of these would go a long way to making the city feel a safer place.
With Donald Trump due to arrive in Israel, there stir some faint hopes that the ceasefire in Gaza, which has held thus far, may last a while.
With Hamas due to release Israeli hostages today and Israel at the same time expected to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, it remains the first rays of hope the region have had for two years.
The photographs of great columns of refugees walking home in Gaza were a welcome change from the columns of refugees fleeing Israel’s onslaught.
But, as has become more apparent over the weekend, many of these refugees are returning to homes that no longer exist as more than piles of rubble and twisted metal.
With at least 11% of the Palestinian territory’s population of some 2m killed or injured, and hundreds of thousands left homeless, there is a long way to go before anything can be considered durable, let alone concluded.
Some analyses suggest that clearing the rubble could take decades, based on the machinery available locally.
You don’t really need expert analysis to appreciate that the human recovery could easily take decades.
The Trump administration’s support for the ceasefire will remain essential, even if Mr Trump’s capriciousness and erratic behaviour means that support could evaporate almost on a whim.
How long will the peace hold? As long as it can. A summit in Egypt this week will discuss ways of ending the Gaza war. But every day it does is a day that should be welcomed.
almond drink and oat drink rather than almond milk or oat milk.
The logic in the current case, which comes after lobbying by farming groups, is it gives certainty to consumers, though that would evidently assume the ordinary punter can’t tell the difference between a tofu steak and one carved from the flesh of a cow. This is only one of a basket of measures surrounding food standards and the like. It just happens to be the most eye catching.
Correct labelling is rightly essential, and EU food standards are high alongside that. But this is not a case where local regional specialties are being imitated elsewhere — we’re not talking about Clonakilty black pudding being mass produced under that banner elsewhere, for instance.
The take-up of plant and lab-based alternatives has faltered, with the options — which to be fair have plentiful environmental benefits — failing to win over great swathes of new devotees. And there is no indication, for example, that the EU is acting against unscrupulous companies that are passing off veggie options as meat ones.
Plant-based diets are certainly one important tool against climate change, and we saw only last week that half of bird species are in decline, largely because of deforestation for agriculture. And indeed it is a mainstay of much science fiction from Battlestar Galactica to Foundation to Blade Runner that whole planets end up running on algae, fungi, or soy diets. But we’re not there yet, so it seems this current labelling proposal more a waste of time and resources than something that will either improve consumer safety or supply chains.
And, as one MEP noted, dismissing the whole endeavour as “hot dog populism”, people know beef tomatoes don’t contain beef.
Maybe they should be trusted, just a little bit.
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